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Coleridge and Contemplation is a multi-disciplinary volume on Samuel Taylor Coleridge, founding poet of British Romanticism, critic, and author of philosophical, political, and theological works. In his philosophical writings, Coleridge developed his thinking about the symbolizing imagination, a precursor to contemplation, into a theory of contemplation itself, which for him occurs in its purest form as a manifestation of 'Reason'. Coleridge is a
particularly challenging figure because he was a thinker in process, and something of an omnimath, a Renaissance man of the Romantic era. The dynamic quality of his thinking, the 'dark fluxion' pursued but ultimately 'unfixable by thought', and his extensive range of interests make a philosophical yet also
multi-disciplinary approach to Coleridge essential.
This book is the first collection to feature philosophers and intellectual historians writing on Coleridge's philosophy. This volume opens up a neglected aspect of the work of Britain's greatest philosopher-poet - his analysis of contemplation, which he considered the highest of human mental powers. Philosophers including Roger Scruton, David E. Cooper, Michael McGhee, Andy Hamilton, and Peter Cheyne contribute original essays on the philosophical, literary, and political implications of
Coleridge's views. The volume is edited and introduced by Peter Cheyne, and Baroness Mary Warnock contributes a foreword.
The chapters by philosophers are supported by new developments in philosophically minded criticism from leading Coleridge scholars in English departments, including Jim Mays, Kathleen Wheeler, and James Engell. They approach Coleridge as an energetic yet contemplative thinker concerned with the intuition of ideas and the processes of cultivation in self and society. Other chapters, from intellectual historians and theologians, including Douglas Hedley clarify the historical background,
and 'religious musings', of Coleridge's thought regarding contemplation.
List of contents
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Part I: Poetics and Aesthetics
- 1: J. C. C. Mays: Contemplation in Coleridge's Poetry
- 2: David E. Cooper: Meditation on the Move: Walking, Nature, Mystery
- 3: James Kirwan: Coleridge on Beauty: Aesthetic Contemplation as Revelation
- 4: Kathleen Wheeler: Coleridge, Dewey, and the Art of Contemplation
- 5: Roger Scruton: Imagination and Truth: Reflections after Coleridge
- Part II: Worldviews: Science, Ethics, and Politics
- 6: David Knight: Coleridge and Chemical Philosophy
- 7: Philip Aherne: The 'way of seeking': The Coleridgean Development of Utilitarianism in Cambridge
- 8: Kaz Oishi: Contemplation and Philanthropy: Coleridge, Owen, and the 'Well-Being of Nations'
- 9: Andy Hamilton: Coleridge, Mill, and Conservatism: Contemplation of an Idea
- Part III: Metaphysics
- 10: Peter Cheyne: Coleridge's 'Order of the Mental Powers' and the Energic-Energetic Distinction
- 11: Dillon Struwig: Coleridge's Two-Levels Theory of Metaphysical Knowledge and the Order of the Mental Powers in the Logic
- 12: Cristina Flores: Contemplant Spirits': Ralph Cudworth and Contemplation in S. T. Coleridge
- 13: Douglas Hedley: S. T. Coleridge's Contemplative Imagination
- 14: James Engell: Coleridge and Contemplation: The Act
- Part IV: Philosophy of Religion
- 15: Michael McGhee: The Soul steady and collected: A Buddhist response to Coleridge
- 16: Noriko Naohara: The Will to Faith: Coleridge's Contemplative Theology
- 17: Suzanne E. Webster: Coleridge, Contemplation, and the 'triple Ichheit'
- 18: J. Gerald Janzen: Notebook 55 as Contemplative Coda to Coleridge's Work and Life
About the author
Peter Cheyne is Associate Professor at Shimane University, where he teaches Philosophy and Literature. He divides his time between Shimane and his native Durham, where he is Visiting Fellow at Durham University Philosophy Department. He has published 'A Coleridgean Account of Meditative Experience' (Journal of Philosophy of Life, Jan. 2013); 'The Art Of Poetic Life-Writing' (Coleridge Bulletin, Winter 2014); 'Encoded and Embodied Rhythm', (eds Hamilton & Paddington, Philosophy of Rhythm, OUP, 2017).
Summary
A collection of essays on Coleridge's mature philosophy written by philosophers, intellectual historians, and leading literary authorities on Coleridge.
Additional text
Coleridge and Contemplation is an exciting addition to Coleridge scholarship to say the least, not only demonstrating that Coleridge stands as a serious philosophical voice in his historical setting but also that his thought continues to open new and provocative conceptual paths today.
Report
This volume brings together literary critics and philosophers to generate new accounts of Coleridge's mature philosophical thinking. The essays treat not only such issues as the contemplative experience of poetry, the religious dimension of aesthetic experience, the truth directed character of imagination, and meditation while walking in nature, but also Coleridge's thought in relation to Platonism, John Dewey, utilitarianism, philanthropy, physiology, and theology. Andrea Henderson, Studies in English Literature
